Eugene appeared in Salem in 1982 and was a patient of Dr. Marlena Evans. Eugene kidnapped Marlena and took her back to his apartment. Eugene's apartment walls were covered with newspaper clippings about the stranglings and pictures of Marlena.
Roman Brady and Don Craig rescued Marlena, and Eugene confessed to the killings. However, when the calls and letters continued Eugene was cleared, and hospitalized.

In 1983 Eugene began dating Trista Evans, but the Bradford family curse was after him. Eugene's grandfather had recently died in Haiti, and since Eugene was the next in line he inherited the curse. People all around Eugene began to die, and he blamed the curse.

Later that year Eugene proposed to Trista. Eugene was sure that the Bradford Curse was behind the mysterious killings, and he and Trista went to Haiti to find out what was going on. While in Haiti Trista and Eugene were married, but soon after Trista was found dead, a long with a raven feather.

Eugene saved Roman's life at Roman and Marlena's wedding. Eugene's sixth sense caused him to leap at Roman, and saved him from a bullet that would have hit Roman.

Eugene soon moved in with his cousin Letita, who just happened to own a raven. Soon after moving in Letita was found dead, and Eugene became the prime suspect, though he blamed it on the Bradford curse.

Eugene acquired his family Talisman while in Haitti, hoping it would ward off the curse. When Roman Brady rigged his death in an explosion Eugene agreed to let Roman hide in his house, but warned Roman that Trista was haunting it. After Roman moved in he figured out that the ghosts Eugene was seeing was actually a computer hologram that Stefano DiMera had rigged to make Eugene crazy, Stefano was after Eugene's family Talisman.

In order to make Roman's death seem real Eugene and Marlena married in 1983.

Eugene's Talisman was the key to diffusing the bomb Stefano planted at the hospital charity gala. Luckily Eugene and Roman managed to defuse the bomb in time.

In 1984 Eugene and Bo learned about three prisms designed by Larry Welches father. Stefano wanted these prisms to heal an inoperable brain tumor he had. One prism was in the belly of an alligator, another in a necklace owned by Daphne DiMera which fell into Calliope Jones' hands, and the third in Russia.

In 1984 Alex, Anna, and Tony picked Haiti for a photo shot for their newly formed fashion company. On board the plane flying to Haiti was Eugene Bradford, Calliope Jones, Bo Brady, Hope Williams, Anna DiMera, Liz Chandler, Carlo, Daphne DiMera, Andre DiMera, and Tony DiMera. On the way to Haiti Andre DiMera surprisingly popped up, and when he threatened the pilot to change his course the pilot died of a heart attack, and the plane crashed on a remote island. As a result of the plane crash Daphne DiMera died in Andre's arms. When Tony learned about this the to fought, and Andre met his demise in a patch of quicksand. Tony gave the necklace with the prism to and island girl, but Stefano managed to get the prism back. Roman Brady showed up, and fought with Stefano atop of a nearby cliff as Bo watched from below. Roman eventually fell, and died on the beach in Bo's arms. When Bo left Roman to get help, Roman's body was gone when he returned. Eventually the Coast Guard arrived, and everyone was rescued.

In 1985 Eugene and Calliope Jones became engaged, however their engagement hit a roadblock. In order for Eugene to collect his inheritance he had to marry a rich and high class woman. Calliope faked the part well, and Eugene was allowed to marry her. However, most of Eugene's inheritance had already been spent by his extravagant mother. If his mother was discovered she could face a jail sentence, so in order to help her Eugene married the wealthy Madeline Rutherford, and also took a job at the paper Salem Today writing a "Dear Abbey" like column under the name Bettina Lovelorn. To pass as Bettina Eugene had to dress up in drag often. Eventually Bettina's true identity was revealed, and he was fired and sued for fraud. Madeline left Eugene, and with what little money he had left he and Calliope married on December 31, 1985.